13 Film Festival on Art & Artists | JD Centre of Art
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Opening Ceremony

Talks, Workshops & Performances

Display Stalls of Crafts, Textiles, Indigenous Food and Art Publications

JD Centre of Art Site

13th International Film Festival Art & Artists, 2020
7, 8 & 9 February 2020

IDCOL Auditorium, Unit 2, IG Park,

Bhubaneswar, Odisha

 

Film Screening: 48 films from 17 countries

  • 26 were from India (11 of them from Odisha).

  • 22 were from 17 different countries around
    the world.

  • This is the third time the Festival has gone international, screening films from 17 different countries: Australia, Canada, China, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, India, Israel, Japan, Kazakhstan, Mexico, Myanmar, Norway, Spain, United Kingdom and United States.

  • The films spanned the genres of Visual Arts, Performing Arts, Traditional Arts & Crafts, Design & Architecture, Communities & Cultures and Animation.

Illustrated talks:

  • Bose Krishnamachari: The Indian Biennale

  • Adwaita Gadanayak: Upendra Maharathi exhibition at National Gallery of Modern Art (NGMA), New Delhi

  • Nandita Das: The Joy and Challenges of Recreating the Times in Manto

Workshops:​

  • 4K Films on a Budget; Digital filmmaking workshops led by National Award-winning filmmakers Nandan Saxena and Kavita Bahl.

Activities:

  • 13 Introductions or Q&As on films, either by the filmmaker or foreign mission

  • Concert by singer Vidya Shah

  • Performance of Bhumija and Gotipua dance

  • 22 Traditional craftspeople from different parts of Odisha presented the making of their craft in 11 stalls at the venue.

Participants and visitors:

  • 48 films screened from 17 countries

  • Films Division, Govt. of India, Public Service Broadcasting Trust (PSBT), Film and Television Institute of India (FTII), High Commission of Australia, Embassy of the People’s Republic of China, Embassy of Israel, Instituto Cervantes, Spain GoodPlanet Foundation and individual filmmakers have contributed films.

  • 22 Craftspeople

  • Over 5,000 visitors

Invited Delegates:

  • Designer Subrata Bhowmick (Ahmedabad)

  • Artist and curator Bose Krishnamachari (Mumbai)

  • Sculptor and Director-General of NGMA, Adwaita Gadanayak (Delhi)

  • Photographer Raghu Rai (Delhi)

  • Filmmakers Nandan Saxena and Kavita Bahl (Mumbai)

  • Media personality Sunit Tandon (Delhi)

  • Actress and director Nandita Das (Mumbai)

  • Deputy Head of Post, Australian Consulate-General in Kolkata Daniel Sim

  • Odia filmmakers: Abhishek Swain, Manoranjan Badatya, Pankaja Sethi, Ashutosh Pattnaik, Masako Ono, Ranajit Mohanty and Srikrishna Das

  • Filmmaker Anungla Zoe Longkumer (Dimapur, Nagaland)

  • Filmmaker Patdeep Chaudhuri (Kolkata)

Guests who introduced films and interacted with the audience with a Q&A session after the screening:

  • Daniel Sim, Deputy Head of Post, Australian Consulate-General in Kolkata: Gurrumul

  • Abhishek Swain, filmmaker:
    Through the Eyes of an Artist

  • Manoranjan Badatya, filmmaker: Sand Says Something

  • Pankaja Sethi, filmmaker: Kabir Ke Julahe &
    Niyam Ku Niyam

  • Anungla Zoe Longkumer, filmmaker: Shot Awake: The Making of Changlangshu’s New Log Drum

  • Ashutosh Pattnaik, filmmaker: Shrikshetra to Sahijata

  • Masako Ono, producer: Lost into Art: Dhokra

  • Patdeep Chaudhuri, filmmaker: Daman, the Indomitable (Adamita Daman)

  • Ranajit Mohanty, filmmaker: Planet Earth Celebrates (Planeta Terra Celebrari)

  • Srikrishna Das, filmmaker: Ladakh: A Timelapse Journey through the Land of High Passes

  • Raghu Rai, photographer: Raghu Rai, An Unframed Portrait

Film Screening 

48 films from 17 countries were screened (Australia, Canada, China, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, India, Israel, Japan, Kazakhstan, Mexico, Myanmar, Norway, Spain, United Kingdom and United States), that spanned the gamut of the arts: visual and performing arts, traditional arts and crafts, design and architecture, communities & culture and animation. The films ranged from fiction and documentaries to animation. Several films showcased Odisha’s incredible artistic traditions and living heritage.

Opening film: Gurrumul, by Paul Damien Williams, Australia

An emotive portrait of one Australian’s most important musicians, indigenous artist Geoffrey Gurrumul Yunupingu. Blind from birth, he found purpose and meaning through songs and music inspired by his community. This award-winning film premiered at the Berlinale (Berlin Film Festival). Mr. Daniel Sim, Deputy Head of Post, Australian Consulate-General in Kolkata introduced the film. 

 

Closing film: Raghu Rai: an Unframed Portrait, by Avani Rai, India

A personal insight into one of the world’s most celebrated photographers, directed by his daughter Avani Rai. The film becomes a portrait not only of a passionate photographer, but also of a father-daughter relationship in which the camera is a source of both connection and friction.

Raghu Rai has recently won the first edition of the most prestigious Photography Award of the French Académie des Beaux-Arts. He will be present during the screening.

 

VISUAL ARTS:   

Great Artists - El Greco

Phil Grabsky, Spain, UK,

2001, English, 30 min, Visual Arts

Part of the Great Artists series with Tim Marlow. The paintings of the artist El Greco (1541-1614) are among the most distinctive works of the early modern period. His art marked a radical departure from the naturalism of the Renaissance, and as result was ignored for almost 300 years.

Chinese Painting

Yu Haojiang, Ministry of Culture, China, 

2009, English, 20 min, Visual Arts

A film on one of the most known ‘refined culture’ of China, traditional ink wash paintings. It looks into not only the art form itself, but most importantly, the philosophy of harmony in the traditional Chinese culture.

The Heartbeats of Memory

Nono Ayuso (aka NONO), UK

2019, English, 3 min, Visual Arts

“Every time you face your memories, you feel the heartbeat of the past, the vertigo of longing, and the fear that your memory no longer resembles what once really was.” This poetic short film was shot on Super 8 film in Japan between April and June 2019.

Legacy of a Painter

Nutan Manmohan, India

2018, Hindi, English, 24 min, Visual Arts

The poignant film looks at the artistic journey of Jangarh Singh Shyam, the genius Gond Pradhan artist from central rural India. Following his first appearance at the Pompidou Centre, Paris, his work received international acclaim until his shocking death in 2001.

NINO

Eitan Herman, Israel

2019, Hebrew, 6 min, Visual Arts

Nino, a great photographer from Israel contracted polio in his childhood, but he didn’t let that stop him from pursuing his goals. He chose to experience the beauty he sees in humanity and share it through his camera.

Olafur Eliasson: Become Your Own Navigator (Art21) Ian Forster, Rafael Salazar, Ava Wiland, USA, Germany 2019, English, 5 min, Visual Arts

Working with elements such as light, colour and reflection, artist Olafur Eliasson invites viewers to project their own subjective context onto the reading of his artwork.

A Painter of Eloquent Silence: Ganesh Pyne Buddhadeb Dasgupta, India

1998, English, 24 min, Visual Arts

A biographical film on the reclusive painter of eloquent silence - Ganesh Pyne.

The Perceiving Fingers: The World of J Swaminathan Vinod Bhardwaj, India

2019, English, 48 min, Visual Arts

An insight into influential painter Jagdish Swaminathan through interviews with Dhoomimal Gallery curators and his artistic contemporaries of the 1980’s. This artistic documentary celebrates his creative practice, social and political activism and 20 promotion of folk painting as contemporary art.

Raghu Rai, an Unframed Portrait

Avani Rai, India, Finland, Norway

2017, English, Hindi, 55 min, Visual Arts

Avani Rai didn’t set out to make a film about her father, the famous photographer Raghu Rai. What she wanted was to get to know him better by observing him on one of his photo trips. In the film that she ended up making anyway, father and daughter travel together. Avani films and photographs her father as he works. In the process, the film becomes a portrait not only of a passionate photographer, but also of a father-daughter relationship in which the camera is a source of both connection and friction.

 

 

Sand Says Something

Manoranjan Badatya, India

2016, Odia, English, 5 min, Visual Arts

Sand Says Something is a short documentary film, based on the life of Padmashree awardee sand sculptor, Sudarshan Pattnaik.

Tales of our Time, Sun Xun

Solomon R Guggenheim Museum, USA 2016, Mandarin, 5 min, Visual Arts

From his Beijing studio, Sun Xun explains his use of both historical and fantastical imagery in his animated video installation, Mythological Time.

PERFORMING ARTS:

The Art of Making, Alma Flamenca

COMMUNITIES AND CULTURE:

Daman, the Indomitable (Adamita Daman)
Patdeep Chaudhuri, India

2017, Bengali, 19 min, Communities & Culture
Daman Murmu, an Adivasi living in the Mahanandapur village of West Bengal is performing a very rare folk culture, ‘Chadar Badni’, a form of mobile puppet show. He travels between villages with his handmade wooden puppets to earn his livelihood. 

Human’s Musics

Yann Arthus-Bertrand,

Composed by Armand Amar, France

2015, No dialogue, 83 min, Communites & Culture

This musical variation of Yann Arthus-Bertrand’s 2015 film, Human, was composed by Armand Amar. With remarkable eclecticism, singers and world musicians have come together to create an overwhelmingly moving musical landscape that taps deep into the heart of humanity itself.

Ladakh: A Timelapse Journey through the

Land of High Passes

Srikrishna Das, India

2019, No dialogue, 3 min, Communities & Culture

This mesmerizing timelapse video shot over 8 days in Leh, Ladakh takes its viewers on a visual journey to the ‘Land of High Passes’.

A Letter to Home

Mukul Haloi, India

2018, Assamese, 25 min, Communities & Culture Glimpses of lives from a village in Assam reveal the relationship between its history and the present.

My Father’s Tools

Heather Condo, Canada

2016, No dialogue, 7 min, Communities & Culture

In honour of his father, Stephen, a Mi’gmaq nation craftsman, continues the production of traditional baskets. He finds peace in his studio, in connection with the man who taught him the work.

Niyam Ku Niyam

Pankaja Sethi, Mandika Nilamani, Tanuja Sethi,

India 2013, No dialogue, 5 min,

Communites & Culture

According to Dongria Kondh Adivasi, Niyamraja is the king of forest. This film captures the landscape of the Niyamgiri hills 19 from the Rayagada district of Odisha - the hills, trees, streams and textiles, the lives and rituals of Dongria Kondh Adivasi and their connection to the forest. Kondhs consider nature as their supreme God, the creator and protector.

Shot Awake: The Making of Changlangshu’s New Log Drum

Anungla Zoe Longkumer, India

2018, Konyak, English, 25 min, Communities & Culture After a hiatus of fifty-seven years, the Shajung Morung of the Konyak village of Changlangshu decided to carve a new log drum for themselves. Although preparations for the task started in 1999, it was only in 2013 that they could host the grand event of acquiring their new log drum.

Shrikshetra to Sahijata (Shrikshetra Ru Sahijata) Ashutosh Pattnaik, India

2017, Odia, 20 min, Communities & Culture

Keeping a centuries-old tradition alive, Shrikshetra (Puri Dham), hosts the festival of Sahi Jata which blends spirituality and folk theatre.

Songs for Babasaheb

Aranya Sahay, India

2019, Marathi, Hindi, 12 min, Communities & Culture Indian Jurist and social reformer B R Ambedkar often spoke of the power of poetry and art in his speeches. His emphasis on arts spread both a message of equality and a deep tradition of reading and writing poetry and music in Dalit households across Maharashtra.

Throat Singing in Kangirsuk (Katatjatuuk Kangirsumi) Manon Chamberland, Eva Kaukai, Wapikoni Mobile team, Canada, 2018, English, Inuktitut, 3 min, Communities & Culture

Eva Kaukai and Manon Chamberland practice the Inuk art of throat singing in their small village of Kangirsuk.

 

 

DESIGN AND ARCHITECTURE:

Architect Santiago Calatrava

Alexandra Liveris, USA

2016, English, 12 min, Design & Architecture

A rare and intimate view into the world of eminent architect Santiago Calatrava. The film explores the Spanish visionary’s perspective as both an artist and architect.

Casa Gilardi

César Pesquera, Mexico

2016, Spanish, 6 min, Design & Architecture

Casa Gilardi was the last house entirely built by legendary Mexican architect Luis Barragán. The building, situated in Mexico City, is as much an abstract expressionist mood piece as it is a much-loved residence.

Doshi, Beginnings

Premjit Ramachandran, India

2008, English, 7 min, Design & Architecture

An insightful portrait of India’s most eminent architect B V Doshi. Doshi led the evolution of contemporary Indian architecture, interpreting the modernist ideals of his former mentor, Le Corbusier, and working within the constraints of the local conditions of site, climate, and available technologies. He was awarded the prestigious Pritzker Prize in 2018 for his great contributions to architecture.

Mahendra Raj - Three Shorts

Isha Sharma, Studio VanRO Foundation, India

2019, English, 17 min, Design & Architecture

The 3-part film - Mahendra Raj was produced for the recently concluded exhibition entitled ‘Structuring Form: The Innovative Rigour of Mahendra Raj’. The exhibition, held at the Kiran Nadar Museum of Art, brought into the public domain for the first time, his extraordinary practice and workings.

The Spring of Moere

Takayuki Yoshida, Japan

2019, No dialogue, 17 min, Design & Architecture Moerenuma Park is a large sculpture park in the outskirts of Sapporo, Japan. It was designed by the Japanese-American sculptor, Isamu Noguchi, as a work of sculptural art in itself. This is a short documentary film about one spring day at Moerenuma Park.

ANIMATION:

Carlotta’s face

Valentin Riedl, Frédéric Schuld, Germany

2018, German, 5 min, Animation

Through art, Carlotta overcomes a rare brain condition that prevents her from recognizing faces

Every Drop Counts

Dhimant Vyas, India

2016, No dialogue, 1 min, Animation

For most of us living in cities with dependable amenities, drought is something we see on TV or read in newspapers. This gives us an emotional distance from the people, animals, birds and landscapes affected by a drought. Because of this, we fail to understand the impact of our own actions.

Lost & Found

Andrew Goldsmith & Bradley Slabe, Australia

2018, No dialogue, 8 min, Animation

Lost & Found is an Oscar shortlisted stop motion film that tugs at the heartstrings. A clumsy crochet dinosaur must unravel itself to save the love of its life.

My Moon

Eusong Lee, USA

2018, English, 8 min, Animation 

An animated short film about a relationship between three celestial bodies; a bittersweet romance between Earth, Moon, and Sun.

Mythological Time

Sun Xun, China, USA

2016, No dialogue, 13 min, Animation

Composed of hand-drawn frames, Sun Xun’s Mythological Time takes the viewer on a panoramic journey through his hometown of Fuxin in northern China, a coal mining centre that faces the depletion of its economic lifeblood. Viewed through legendary folk customs, political beliefs, and historic changes, the city’s dark and rich history is momentarily glimpsed.

Planet Earth Celebrates (Planeta Terra Celebrari) Ranajit Mohanty, India

2019, No dialogue, 2 min, Animation

In this short terracotta clay-motion, the first cosmic man and woman, formed from the clay of the earth, meet on Diwali to warn that we should better protect the earth.

The Quiet

Radheya Jegatheva, Australia

2019, English, 10 min, Animation

When an astronaut ponders the quietude of space, he reaches a startling self-realisation.

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